The commitment calls on these companies to start eliminating unnecessary plastics and implementing reusable packaging where possible, starting right now. Then, by 2025, all of their plastic packaging must be reusable, recyclable, or compostable AND created using renewable energy.

Following this troubling finding, the foundation called for a roundtable discussion with industry leaders that account for about 20 percent of the world's plastic packaging. They sat in the same room and worked together to answer the question "Where do we innovate so we change the system?” Ellen MacArthur, founder of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, tellsFast Company.

Instead of taking a micro-view, the coalition zoomed out and envisioned what the future would look like if we changed the system in a big way. How big? Well, the new commitment also calls on governments to provide the necessary infrastructure to ensure that recyclables are in fact recycled.